WW News Service Digest #377
1) Teach-in to open anti-WEF protests
by WW
2) Stop racist profiling
by WW
3) Pentagon bootprints around the globe
by WW
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (WW)
Date: lauantai 26. tammikuu 2002 14:47
Subject: [WW] Teach-in to open anti-WEF protests
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 31, 2002
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
>From theory to action
TEACH-IN TO OPEN ANTI-WEF PROTESTS
By Deirdre Griswold
New York
Theory without action will get you nowhere. Action without
theory may get you to the wrong place.
On Feb. 1 and 2, opponents of the World Economic Forum will
have a chance to test their theories and their ability to
put them into action.
The billionaires of the WEF, who usually meet on a
mountaintop in Davos, Switzerland, will be holding their
annual bash in New York this year. They probably think that
this metropolis, the financial capital of the world and home
to nearly 8 million people, is so traumatized by Sept. 11
that good old-fashioned street demonstrations against greedy
capitalists, like the ones that have been rousing the world
since Seattle, will not be tolerated.
Surprise, surprise. Demonstrators are coming from all over
to creatively and forcefully make their demands known
outside the old-money Waldorf-Astoria hotel, where the WEF
is meeting. The main street actions will be held on
Saturday, Feb. 2, beginning at 9 a.m. and lasting all day.
Permits have been obtained for these protests.
But the day before, the theories that lead to these actions
will be presented, discussed, kicked around and generally be
given a good workout at two different events: a teach-in
during the day and a rally in the evening.
Here's a preview of what these events will look like.
The teach-in will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Community
Church, 35th Street between Park and Madison Avenues. It
will have opening and closing plenaries, book-ended around
half a dozen workshops. Many different organizations are
contributing to the list of speakers in both the plenaries
and the workshops. The whole thing has been pulled together
by the International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End
Racism) coalition.
The first plenary--from 10:00 to 11:15--will focus on
corporate capitalism and George Bush's war against working
people at home and abroad. The closing plenary--from 3:00 to
4:00--will look at how the war in Afghanistan fits into U.S.
global strategy, oil and the military-industrial complex.
The workshop on "Racial and Political Profiling: What you
need to know about John Ashcroft's new 'anti-terrorism
laws'" will let legal experts explain this draconian new
legislation, but everyone will have a chance to raise their
concerns and strategies. The presiders will be Mara
Verheyden-Hilliard and Carl Messenio of Partnership for
Civil Justice and Riva Enteen of the San Francisco National
Lawyers Guild. All three are also with the NLG Mass Legal
Defense.
The National Coalition for Dignity and Amnesty of
Undocumented Workers will chair the workshop on "Invisible
Workers Equal Superprofits: The role of immigrant labor."
"From Palestine to Iraq: Understanding U.S. strategy in the
Middle East" is being organized by Students for
International Peace & Justice, the International Action
Center and the Committee in Support of the Iraqi People.
"Globalization Makes Us Sick: The state of healthcare around
the world" will draw on the knowledge of medical workers and
consumers from Doctors for Global Health, Doc Bloc, Health
Gap Coalition and others.
The Center on Conscience and War will present a workshop on
"Resisting Military Recruitment on College Campuses."
Nicaragua Network, Network in Solidarity with the People of
Guatemala, CISPES, Colombia Action Network and the Stop the
U.S. War in Colombia Committee of the IAC will elaborate on
"U.S. Policy Towards Central America, Latin America and the
Caribbean: Keeping colonies for the corporations."
Workshops will run from 11:30 to 1:00, and again from 1:15
to 2:45.
EVENING RALLY AT FIT
People who've been attending the teach-in during the day
will get a break until 7 that night, when they can join
newcomers at a big rally at the FIT Auditorium on 27th St.
between 7th and 8th Avenues.
The rally will be where all these separate issues are
brought together: the struggles against war, racism and
corporate globalization. A list of those speaking and
sending messages reads like a Who's Who of strong voices of
opposition:
* former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who is suing
over the treatment of prisoners held by the U.S. in
Guantanamo;
* Rep. Barbara Lee of California, the only member of
Congress to oppose the resolution giving Bush the power to
wage this dirty war;
* Mumia Abu-Jamal, famed death row prisoner;
* Larry Adams, President, Local 300, National Postal Mail
Handlers Union;
* Nadia Ahmed, Students for International Peace & Justice;
* Asha Samad-Matias, Muslims Against Racism & War;
* Rev. Lucius Walker, IFCO/Pastors for Peace;
* Ron Daniels, Center for Constitutional Rights;
* Rev. Curtis Gatewood, President, Durham Chapter of NAACP;
* Brother Joel Magellan, Tepeyac Association;
* Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Partnership for Civil Justice;
* Peta Lindsay, School Without Walls High School;
* Larry Holmes, International Action Center;
* Pam Africa, International Concerned
Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal;
* Macrina Cardenas, Mexico Solidarity Network,
and more.
Soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, thousands of people in New
York and other cities who mourned the victims also came out
with placards and buttons letting the world know they didn't
want this great tragedy to become the excuse for war and
racism. "War is not the answer" became the slogan of this
spontaneous movement.
"So what is the answer?" was the response of many people.
The teach-in and rally on Feb. 1 will be taking this
question up in all its complexity. The war has now happened,
and so have many racist attacks. Capitalist globalization
continues to ravage the Third World, even as economic crisis
comes home to millions of workers here.
More than ever, the movement that will go into action on
Feb. 2 needs to refine its politics, and the teach-in and
rally on Feb. 1 are expected to provide an exciting venue
for education, discussion and the shaping of a people's
agenda against the exploiters of the world.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
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From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (WW)
Date: lauantai 26. tammikuu 2002 14:48
Subject: [WW] Stop racist profiling
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 31, 2002
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
New Jersey
STOP RACIST PROFILING
By Monica Moorehead
Jersey City and Kearny, N.J.
"No justice, no peace" and "Stop racist profiling" were two
of the main slogans chanted by some 100 activists at a
protest here Jan. 21 against the illegal and secret
detention of hundreds of people--most of whose names the
government still refuses to release--after the 9/11 attacks.
The demonstration was held on the official holiday
recognizing the birthday of slain civil rights leader Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Activists marched from the Jersey City side of the
Hackensack River to the Hudson County Correctional Center in
Kearny. Hundreds of mostly Arab and Islamic people who were
rounded up are being held at this prison for "questioning."
As marchers crossed the bridge, a number of truck drivers
and others honked their horns in support.
The demonstration was called by a coalition of peace and
civil liberty groups. Part of the joint statement announcing
the demonstration read, "The Hudson County Correctional
Center is one of the nation's largest holding facilities for
Muslim, Arab, South and Central Asian and Middle-Eastern
immigrants. Many of the people being held have had no
charges brought against them, have had no access to a lawyer
and have had no communication with their families."
As the march neared the prison, the multinational group of
Arab, African American, Latino and white demonstrators could
be seen by some of the prisoners. The prisoners began to
wave their arms and hands at the activists across the
street, and the protesters waved back in a moving gesture of
solidarity.
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Congress has passed Atty. Gen.
John Ashcroft's racist, reactionary and anti-immigrant U.S.
Patriot Act. The Bush administration has used this new law
to deny immigrants in the U.S., those with and without
citizenship, their civil liberties and civil rights. Anyone
or any group that the U.S. government suspects of being a
"terrorist" can be wiretapped without their knowledge,
detained, deported if they are immigrants, and have their
assets frozen.
Before the march began, a short rally took place near the
Jersey City side of the bridge. Speakers included Yunus
Abdur-Rahim Ali, an African American spokesperson for the
Masjid Muhammad Jersey City mosque; Madalyne Hoffman, New
Jersey Peace Action; Joe Ahamanti, Veterans For Peace; Sara
Flounders, International Action Center; and Mohammad
Qotononi, Islamic Center in Passaic.
This demonstration was one of two held in New Jersey that
day on the issue of detainees. The other action took place
at Passaic County Jail in Paterson, a city with a
predominantly African American and immigrant population.
Sponsoring groups included the South Asian group Desis
Rising Up and Moving, the Coalition for the Human Rights of
Immigrants and the Prison Moratorium Project.
Demands of the Paterson demonstration included: release all
detainees held for immigration violations; repeal the
Patriot Act, the illegal 1996 Immigration Reform and
Immigrant Responsibility Act and the 1996 Anti-Terrorism and
Effective Death Penalty Act; release a real list of
detainees, and provide detainees with immediate, full and
proper access to legal information and representation.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (WW)
Date: lauantai 26. tammikuu 2002 14:52
Subject: [WW] Pentagon bootprints around the globe
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 31, 2002
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
Expanding empire
PENTAGON BOOTPRINTS AROUND THE GLOBE
By Sara Flounders
The role of the Pentagon as the enforcer of U.S. corporate
globalization can be seen clearly today in Afghanistan and
throughout Central Asia. A whole string of new military
bases is protecting the enormous economic stake of a few
U.S. transnationals in the development, pumping and selling
of Caspian Sea oil.
Kazakhstan, on the Caspian Sea, was the second-biggest
republic of the former Soviet Union. It has the largest
untapped oil reserves in the world--50 billion barrels. By
comparison, Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil producer,
has about 30 billion barrels remaining, according to the
Nov. 2 San Francisco Chronicle.
A Kazakh government source quoted in the Jan. 20 London
Observer said, "It is clear the continuing war in
Afghanistan is no more than a veil for the U.S. to establish
dominance in the region. The war on terrorism is only a
pretext for extending influence over our energy resources."
Oil and gas are worthless until they can be moved, sold as
commodities and used to fuel industry and transport. The oil
of Central Asia or the Middle East is not needed to fuel
industries or cars within the U.S. But control of this vital
resource--control of the tap--gives enormous leverage over
the development of every other country. Competition under
capitalism is ruthless, even among allies.
The dream of a 1,000-mile pipeline through Afghanistan,
moving a million barrels of oil a day, was called the Unocal
Plan--named after the U.S. oil corporation that had the
largest stake in the plan. Unocal's scheme needed a ruthless
national administration in Afghanistan that could guarantee
the pipeline.
In his book "Taliban," author and researcher Ahmed Rashid
describes how U.S. and Pakistani government support of the
Taliban before Sept. 11 reflected its relations with Unocal.
Unocal invited leaders of the Taliban to Houston where they
were royally entertained. A U.S. diplomat told Rashid in
1997, "The Taliban will probably develop like the Saudis
did. There will be Aramco [the former U.S. oil consortium in
Saudi Arabia], pipelines, an emir, no parliament and lots of
Sharia law. We can live with that."
As recently as 1999, U.S. taxpayers paid the entire annual
salary of every single Taliban government official. Now that
these same officials are no longer serving the needs of the
U.S., they are being hunted down, held in wire cages waiting
"interrogation," or are the targets of saturation bombing
campaigns.
The only route for the vast oil deposits of the Caspian Sea
that ensures U.S. corporate control is through a pacified
Afghanistan. According to the Oct. 22 issue of the British
publication The Guardian, using pipelines through Russia
would enhance that country's political and economic
importance with the Central Asian republics. Washington has
spent 10 years trying to destroy the web of relations
between Russia and the other republics of the former Soviet
Union.
Of paramount importance to the oil corporations is that
pumping oil in pipelines through Afghanistan to South Asia
is far more profitable than pumping oil west and selling it
in Europe. In South Asia demand is booming and competitors
are scarce. In Europe consumption is slow and competition is
intense.
'FULL-SPECTRUM DOMINANCE'
Washington's determination to assert control throughout
Central Asia is further confirmation of the Pentagon's
explicitly stated doctrine of "full-spectrum dominance,"
first referred to publicly in "Joint Vision 2020," a
Department of Defense 20-year blueprint for the military
released May 30, 2000.
This document declared, "Given the global nature of our
interests and obligations, the United States must retain its
overseas presence forces and the ability of rapidly
projecting power worldwide in order to achieve full-spectrum
dominance."
This policy document, signed by then Joint Chiefs of Staff
head Gen. Henry Shelton, is an extension of a Pentagon
document leaked to the New York Times as a trial balloon
eight years earlier. That proclaimed the need for complete
U.S. world domination in both political and military terms
and threatened any other country that even aspired to a
greater role.
Clearly the Pentagon is feeling even more assertive these
days. President George W. Bush's talk of "endless war"
summarizes this published agenda.
The "full-spectrum dominance" doctrine clearly calls for the
repudiation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and
wholesale violation of the Outer Space Treaty.
A reflection of this policy can be seen in a Jan. 9 front-
page New York Times article that states the U.S. is
preparing a "long-term footprint in Central Asia" with the
building of permanent military bases there.
What is particularly ominous about these new bases is that
they are also part of a long-term policy to surround Russia
and China and destabilize all of Asia.
According to a report in the Pakistan Frontier Post referred
to in the British weekly New Worker on Dec. 14, the U.S. is
thinking of deploying its National Missile Defense system in
Afghanistan to threaten China on its Western border. This
same missile "defense" system is planned for Japan, South
Korea and Taiwan in order to militarily encircle China.
Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People's
Liberation Army General Fu Quanyou warned that the
development of these bases "poses a direct threat to China's
security."
MILITARY BOOTPRINTS
The real military buildup has just begun.
At Manas airbase outside of Bishkek, the capital of
Kyrgyzstan, a small city is being built on 37 acres to house
2,000 to 3,000 U.S. troops within a month. Transport planes
from U.S. bases in Europe are flying in cargo loaders, fire
trucks, tractors. A facility for two dozen fighter-bombers
is being built. Manas airbase is seen as a transportation
hub, giving the Pentagon a northern route into the region in
the event of any difficulties with their southern route
through India and Pakistan.
Some 1,000 soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division and
hundreds of secret Special Operations forces will be based
at Khanabad airbase in Uzbekistan. On a swing through the
former Soviet Republics in mid-January, Senate Majority
Leader Tom Daschle told Uzbek leaders that the U.S. presence
"is not simply in the immediate term." The U.S. has
pressured Tajikistan and Kazakhstan to let the Pentagon use
former Soviet military bases.
In Afghanistan itself there are three major bases: Bagram
airbase north of Kabul, where 1,000 U.S. troops are based;
Mazar-i Sharif airport, the staging area in the north; and
Kandahar airbase in the south, where the 101st Airborne
Rapid Deployment Division is based. The presence of the
airborne division is described as a symbol of long-term
commitment because Army units establish more permanent bases
and more extensive supply systems.
Thousands of other troops, including British and German,
will take part in the occupation of Afghanistan. But the
Pentagon has made it clear that it is calling all the shots.
At each of these bases the Pentagon flies in what's referred
to as a "city in a box." This is an entire setup of
barracks, work facilities, latrines and water-purifying
systems. At the same time the U.S. has proved incapable of
providing basic relief supplies to millions of Afghan
refugees who have been displaced by its bombs.
In Pakistan, U.S. troops have the use of Jacobabad,
Dalbandin, Pasni and Shamsi airbases. Special Operations
teams, Marine combat search-and-destroy teams, and units of
the 101st Airborne Division operate out of these bases on
bombing and surveillance missions.
There are two Navy carriers loaded with strike aircraft in
the North Arabian Sea--the USS John C. Stennis and the USS
Theodore Roosevelt. The USS Bataan and USS John F. Kennedy
are en route to the region.
There is also the vital U.S. airbase on the island of Diego
Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
PEACEKEEPERS?
The situation in Central Asia is remarkably similar to the
establishment of U.S. military bases in the Middle East and
the Balkans.
The U.S. military presence became a permanent fixture in the
Middle East following the war against Iraq 11 years ago.
More than 5,000 Pentagon troops are stationed in Saudi
Arabia and thousands more are in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the
United Arab Emirates, as well as on aircraft carriers in the
Persian Gulf. They are stationed there to secure domination
of the world's largest producing oil fields.
The corporate media have voiced anxiety that anger among the
masses in Saudi Arabia over U.S. bases there could lead to
the fall of the corrupt royal ruling Saud family. Saudi
Arabia--the largest producer of oil in the world--has become
a debtor nation as a result of exploitation by imperialism.
More than 60 percent of the population is illiterate.
The brass claims these bases are needed throughout the
Middle East to enforce U.S.-led sanctions against Iraq. This
economic strangulation of Iraq has caused the deaths of over
a million and a half people. The sanctions have distorted
trade and development within the entire region. They have
given the U.S. military the authority to stop and board more
than 12,000 ships in the Persian Gulf, tie up ports, halt
truck traffic, seize accounts and control the flow of Iraqi
oil.
U.S. bases were set up in the Balkans under the
"justification" of the U.S.-NATO war against Yugoslavia. Now
they have become an army of occupation in Bosnia, Croatia,
Hungary, Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo.
In the corporate media these occupying troops are described
as "peacekeepers." But Washington has consciously inflamed
and exacerbated tensions in order to insert its military
forces and maintain economic domination.
Under the Dayton Accords, signed in 1995, U.S. troops were
supposed to stay in Bosnia for only six months. They remain.
Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo was little more than a tent city
two years ago. The Pentagon has since built it into the
largest of its bases since the Vietnam War. Now it is a self-
contained city with barracks, command centers, helicopter
maintenance buildings, a water treatment plant, movie
theaters, gyms and a hospital.
Yet during the first winter of U.S. occupation, while all
resources went into building this base, the Pentagon was
unable to supply sufficient plastic sheeting for emergency
housing even for those Kosovo Albanians who had welcomed
U.S. military intervention.
U.S.-NATO bombs and sanctions have created crisis throughout
the region. Enforcing sanctions became an excuse for control
of all trade on the Danube River-the highway of Europe.
The industry and resources of all of Eastern Europe and the
Balkans have been privatized. The new owners are the West
European and U.S. corporations whose troops impose "peace."
Today unemployment in Kosovo exceeds 60 percent.
The Guardian article observed, "The possible economic
outcome of the war in Afghanistan mirrors the possible
outcome of the war in the Balkans, where development of
'Corridor 8,' an economic zone built around a pipeline
carrying oil and gas from the Caspian to Europe, is a
critical allied concern."
THE CLASS WAR
The Pentagon serves a class--and it's not the workers and
oppressed. The U.S. military is a weapon to carry out
policies that enrich imperialist banks and corporations in
their competitive drive for profits.
This is not a recent policy. The 1898 Spanish American war
led to permanent U.S. bases in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panama and
the Philippines. World War II led to a permanent U.S.
military presence in Western Europe and Japan. War against
Korea 50 years ago led to the installation of 50,000 GIs in
South Korea. In all cases, economic exploitation followed
the flag.
Today the Pentagon has forces in more than 100 countries
around the world helping to enforce the class interests of
U.S. capital.
Top capitalist politicians also serve the class interests of
the same small group of multi-billionaires. And in doing so,
they are in a position to amass personal wealth. Look at the
current cast of characters in the Bush administration.
Members of the Bush family have blatantly used their
political offices--from father to sons--to increase their
personal fortunes. They have also packed their
administrations with other politicians whose positions and
personal wealth are tied to energy and military industries.
Vice President Dick Cheney made millions of dollars, after
leaving the first Bush administration, as president of
Halliburton--an oil-industry services company.
National Security Council Director Condoleeza Rice was a
member of the board of directors of Chevron Corporation. She
served as their expert on Kazakhstan. Chevron holds the
largest of the oil concessions in Kazakhstan.
Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans and Secretary of Energy
Stanley Abraham were executives of Tom Brown Corp., another
oil giant.
President Bush's special envoy to Afghanistan--Zalmay
Khalilzad--is a prime example of how U.S. corporations use
the corrupt feudal classes and bankrupt monarchy of
underdeveloped countries to further their control.
Khalilzad sits on the National Security Council in the
present Bush administration. As a consultant for Unocal, he
drew up the risk analysis for the gas pipeline through
Afghanistan and--together with Rice--participated in talks
between Unocal and the Taliban leaders. Those talks
foundered when the Taliban rejected Unocal's terms.
Khalilzad comes from an aristocratic Afghan family with ties
to the monarchy. He was a special advisor in the Reagan
administration, involved in sending Stinger missiles to the
muhajadeen to use against Soviet troops in the 1980s.
Khalilzad became undersecretary of defense in the first Bush
administration in the early 1990s, before joining the right-
wing Rand Corp. think tank.
But that's just one side of the barricades in this class
war. As powerful as U.S. imperialism is, it faces its own
contradictions. And it is squared off against the billions
of workers and oppressed peoples of the planet who suffer as
foreign capital rips off their resources and labor.
Under the cover of "fighting terrorism," the Pentagon is far
over-reaching itself. It is militarily expanding during a
period of economic contraction. And the massive give-away to
the Pentagon and military-industrial complex is not jump-
starting the U.S. economy. Just the opposite.
The more successful the super-wealthy are at creating cheap
labor abroad by beating down resistance to their domination,
the more that drags down the living standards of the workers
here. More and more working and oppressed peoples will
awaken to the truth of whose class interests are served by
Operation Enduring Warfare. They are seeing their
livelihoods and dreams of comfortable retirement after a
lifetime of labor explode in shrapnel, taking the lives of
their class sisters and brothers around the world.
This military spending and deployment will arouse workers
here to put up a fight against their own bosses, who are so
despised around the world. And when they do, they will join
and strengthen the ranks of the oppressed and downtrodden
people who are struggling to rid the world once and for all
of capitalist economic exploitation and imperialist military
force.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
