> WW News Service Digest #164 > > 1) Palestinian refugees: Washington's role > by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > 2) Bush-Gore feel pressure of discontent > by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > 3) On the picket line: 9/21/2000 > by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > 4) Philly teachers ready pickets > by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > 5) Why the minimum wage should be raised > by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > 6) Bernard Livingston: 1911-2000 > by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >------------------------- >Via Workers World News Service >Reprinted from the Sept. 21, 2000 >issue of Workers World newspaper >------------------------- > >PALESTINIAN REFUGEES: WASHINGTON'S ROLE IN MASS EXPULSIONS > >By Richard Becker > >U.S. government officials and the corporate media present >the Middle East "peace process"--and Middle East issues in >general--in a stunningly dishonest and distorted manner. The >victims of aggression are routinely depicted as the >aggressors and vice-versa. > >Take, for example, a CNN news reader's statement in early >September that the talks had stalemated because "the >Palestinians are refusing to compromise and want to retain >all of East Jerusalem." > >In this brief sound bite, the Palestinians are condemned for >being the unreasonable party, the roadblock on the path of >peace. Not coincidentally, this is precisely the Clinton >administration's line, which presents itself to U.S. public >opinion as the frustrated "honest broker" in the Middle East >negotiations. > >WHAT ARE THE FACTS? > >As "East" implies, there is also a West Jerusalem, the far >larger part of the city, which has been a part of Israel >since it and 80 percent of historic Palestine were conquered >in 1948--the year the Israeli state was established. The >four-fifths of Palestine seized by force of arms 52 years >ago are not even on the table in these negotiations. > >What is under discussion in the Oslo peace process is the >remaining 20 percent of Palestine, which Israel--with U.S. >arms and full backing--seized in the 1967 Six-Day War. >Palestinian East Jerusalem was occupied, and, in violation >of international law, annexed to Israel. The Israelis >declared all of Jerusalem to be their "eternal, unified >capital." > >Since then, Jerusalem has been expanded several times by >annexing additional Palestinian West Bank land. > >The Israeli government has adamantly refused to relinquish >any part of East Jerusalem, which Palestinians unanimously >regard as their rightful capital. Yet it is the Palestinians >who are depicted as the unreasonable side. > >Rather than being an honest broker, the U.S. government is >really the senior partner in an alliance with Israel against >the Palestinians and the Arab people as a whole. > >The United States has given hundreds of billions of dollars >in economic and military aid to Israel over the past several >decades. The United States has built up the Israeli military >into one of the world's most modern and powerful, even >though Israel's population is just 7 million. > >Today, Israel is the only country in the Middle East that >possesses nuclear weapons. > >>From the very beginning, Israel's survival was dependent on >support from the United States and other imperialist powers. >U.S. leaders have lavished such uniquely extravagant support >on Israel not out of sympathy or sentimentality--they have >none--but because Israel serves as a military watchdog for >U.S. corporate and geopolitical interests in a most >strategic region of the world. > >The destruction of national-liberation movements and >independent governments in the Middle East has been a fixed >objective of U.S. policy since the end of World War II, when >the United States became the dominant power in the oil-rich >region. And since its very beginnings as a settler state, >Israel's leaders have consciously and willingly played a key >role in these efforts. > >In 1951, Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, >said in an interview with the newspaper Ha'aretz: > >"Strengthening Israel helps the Western powers to maintain >equilibrium and stability in the Middle East. Israel is to >become the watchdog. There is no fear that Israel will >undertake any aggressive policy towards the Arab states when >this would explicitly contradict the wishes of the U.S. and >Britain. > >"But if for any reason the Western powers should sometimes >prefer to close their eyes, Israel could be relied on to >punish one or several neighboring states whose discourtesy >towards the West went beyond the bounds of the permissible." > >Over the years, Israel has invaded Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan >and Syria, made relentless war on the Palestinians, >intervened against liberation movements in the Persian Gulf, >bombed Iraq, aided the reactionary shah of Iran and much, >much more. Israel has always been perceived throughout the >Middle East as an implanted agent of the imperialist and >colonizing powers. > >EXPULSION OF PALESTINIANS > >Along with Jerusalem, another major issue in the >negotiations is the right of expelled Palestinians to return >to their homeland. The U.S./Israeli team has offered nothing >here, either. > >An important national demonstration is planned for >Washington on Sept. 16 under the slogan, "No return = no >peace." Palestinian Americans and their allies are >organizing the protest. > >More than 750,000 Palestinians were expelled when Israel was >established in 1948-1949. Hundreds of thousands more were >forced out in the 1967 war. > >Today, they and their descendants number over 4 million--the >majority of the Palestinian people. Many continue to live in >refugee camps and cities in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and >elsewhere, often in dire poverty. > >The forced removal of the Palestinian people from their >homeland was a crime of staggering proportions. > >For decades, Israeli and U.S. officials claimed that those >who had left either did so voluntarily, or had never existed >at all. These Israeli creation myths have been thoroughly >exposed and discredited, even to a large degree within >Israel itself. > >The myth was important to the legitimacy of the Israeli >state, because its founders claimed to be taking over "a >land without people for a people without land." > >Throughout the 1950s, the U.S. media often referred to >"refugees" or "displaced persons" living in abject misery in >the Middle East without identifying their land of origin. It >was a concerted attempt to make the name "Palestine" vanish >from the world's geography. > >How did the modern Israeli state come into existence and why >was the expulsion of the Palestinian population essential to >its creation? > >In the late 1800s, the European advocates of an exclusively >Jewish state in Palestine began settling there. After World >War I Palestine became a British colony. But most of the >world's Jewish community did not support the Zionist >project. > >In the 1930s Hitler came to power in Germany. The Nazi >genocide in World War II killed 6 million Jews. After the >war, there was great worldwide sympathy for the Jewish >people. > >The U.S. government had looked the other way while the Nazis >carried out the mass murder of Jews. During the war >Washington refused entry to Jews trying to flee the >Holocaust. And after the war, the United States turned away >Jewish death-camp survivors who wanted to emigrate here. > >According to a New York Times report of the time, 90 percent >of Europe's surviving Jews who wished to emigrate wanted to >go to the United States. But most were turned away. Instead, >the Zionist leaders and their U.S. imperialist backers >worked to channel sympathy for the victims of the Nazi >Holocaust into support for creating an Israeli state in >Palestine. > >The founders of Israel and their backers promoted an >international public-relations campaign around the >thoroughly racist slogan, "A land without people for a >people without a land." > >But Palestine was not empty territory. More than a million >Palestinian Arabs lived there. > >The very existence of the Palestinians, whose ancestors had >been on the land for many centuries, was a major problem for >the Zionists. This was true even after the United Nations >voted to partition the British colony of Palestine into two >states on Nov. 29, 1947. Then, as now, the UN was under the >domination of the United States. > >Under the plan, the new Israeli state was to receive 55 >percent of Palestine's territory, although just 30 percent >of the population was Jewish and only 6 percent of the land >was Jewish-owned. > >War between Zionist settlers and the outraged Palestinians >broke out immediately. The Zionists had military superiority >thanks to outside aid, but the settlers could not achieve a >decisive victory for Israel as an exclusively Jewish state >as long as the Palestinians remained a majority. > >Far from being a "land without people," all the arable parts >of the country were inhabited by Palestinians. > >In January 1948 the Haganah and the Irgun, Zionist >paramilitary forces, began to carry out "Plan Dalet." Under >this plan, they staged nighttime attacks on "quiet" >Palestinian villages--those not involved in fighting. > >Haganah and Irgun units would typically plant explosives >around houses, drench them with gasoline and open fire. The >point was to drive out the population. > >Villagers left their homes, but went only as far as the next >village or city. They remained in Palestine. > >MASSACRE AS A POLICY OF REMOVAL > >The April 9, 1948, massacre of the entire village of Deir >Yassin raised "Plan Dalet" to a new level of brutality. When >it was over, 254 children, women and men lay dead. > >It was meant as a warning to all Palestinians. While the >Jewish Agency "condemned" the Deir Yassin massacre in words, >on the same day it brought the Irgun into the military Joint >Command. > >Twelve days after Deir Yassin, joint Irgun-Haganah forces >launched a lethal attack on the Palestinian areas of Haifa. >They rolled barrel bombs filled with gasoline and dynamite >down narrow alleys in the heavily populated city while >mortar shells pounded the Arab neighborhoods from overhead. > >Haganah army loudspeakers and sound cars broadcast "horror >recordings" of shrieks and screams of Arab women, mixed with >calls of: "Flee for your lives. The Jews are using poison >gas and nuclear weapons." > >The Irgun commander reported that many Palestinians cried >"Deir Yassin, Deir Yassin," as they fled. > >Within a week, similar tactics led 77,000 of 80,000 >Palestinians to flee the port city of Jaffa. These tactics >included Israeli sound cars driving through Arab >neighborhoods announcing, "Flee or the fate of Deir Yassin >will be yours." > >Jaffa was in what was supposed to be the Palestinian >partition zone. > >Similar operations were repeated many times. By May 15, >1948, when Israel's independence was proclaimed, 300,000 >Palestinians were living and dying in abominable conditions >of exile in Lebanon, Gaza, Syria and the Jordan Valley. > >By the end of that year, the number of dispossessed >Palestinians had grown to 750,000. > >Their farms, livestock, work places and homes were stolen, >forming an indispensable foundation for the new Israeli >economy and state. > >Today, millions of descendants of the dispossessed >Palestinians of 1948 still live in refugee camps and exile, >forbidden to return to their country by the Israeli >authorities. At the same time, it must be noted, according >to Israeli law, any Jewish person born anywhere in the world >has the "right of return" to Israel. > >Over the past 50 years, the Palestinian people have >displayed incredible heroism and resiliency. They have faced >what appear to be insuperable odds: a people small in >number, with few resources, fighting not only Israel and the >United States, but also against the machinations of >reactionary Arab governments in the region. > >The Palestinians have been counted out many times, but they >have not surrendered or disappeared. Nor will they. > >Real peace in the Middle East is impossible without real >justice for the Palestinian people. Real justice requires a >truly independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its >capital and the Palestinian right to return. > >- END - > >(Copyleft 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) > > > > > >Message-ID: <007201c01f67$96c10aa0$0a00a8c0@linux> >From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: [WW] Bush-Gore feel pressure of discontent >Date: Fri, 15 Sep 2000 18:52:12 -0400 >Content-Type: text/plain; > charset="Windows-1252" >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > >------------------------- >Via Workers World News Service >Reprinted from the Sept. 21, 2000 >issue of Workers World newspaper >------------------------- > >BUSH-GORE FEEL PRESSURE OF DISCONTENT > >By Fred Goldstein > >midst the avalanche of presidential election propaganda >emanating from the candidates and the capitalist media, >there are certain features of the campaign which are not >emphasized but are of importance to the workers and >oppressed and should give encouragement to militants who >want to deepen and widen the struggle against capitalism. > >The campaign's most outstanding feature is that both >candidates are courting popular support based on promises >that they will alleviate the hardships of the people. This >is quite ironic since this is the peak of the great >capitalist boom, the era of the so-called New Economy, with >all the obscene profits pouring into Wall Street. > >Both Bush and Gore say they want to save education, reduce >poverty, deal with the crisis of medical care, etc. The >Republican House leadership even had to agree to a faster >schedule for raising the minimum wage so as not to put Bush >in a bad light. > >In fact, both candidates are running to the left of their >party's positions of just two years ago. While the >capitalist boom has created numerous millionaires and >billionaires, it has left the broad masses in a state of >economic insecurity. Poverty still engulfs over 30 million >people. Real wages are at 1970 levels. > >The rate of exploitation is continually going up. Racism and >sexual discrimination are rampant. > >Both candidates' researchers uncovered this underlying >discontent. Bush's and Gore's advisors told them to adjust >their rhetoric accordingly. > >When the workers hear this demagogy, they should keep in >mind that only three years ago Clinton and Gore were in >lockstep with Newt Gingrich in the drive to destroy welfare, >cut social spending, pass NAFTA, speed up and multiply >executions, strengthen the police and build more prisons. >They championed the persecution of undocumented workers, >balanced the budget on the people's backs and fed more money >to the Pentagon. > >It is the results of this period of reaction, brought about >by the collaboration of both parties, that the candidates >now say they will redress. > >This is the ultimate in hypocrisy and deception. No class >conscious worker should fall for it. > >REPUBLICAN'S STRATEGIC PROBLEM > >The Republican Party has a major strategic problem to solve >in every presidential election. Since the era of Franklin >Roosevelt, the Great Depression and the New Deal, the >Republicans have been a minority party. Their numbers have >gradually crept up over the years, but there are still >significantly fewer Republicans than Democrats. > >Consequently, the Republicans must make inroads into the >Democratic electorate as well as securing their own base. > >Republican Dwight Eisenhower won in spite of a massive >Democratic majority because he promised to bring the troops >home from Korea during that highly unpopular war waged by >Democrat Harry Truman. > >Richard Nixon won by developing the "Southern strategy" of >appealing directly to racist Southern Democrats, and also >because of disaffection with pro-war Democratic candidate >Hubert Humphrey. > >Ronald Reagan used Nixon's racist Southern strategy while >also appealing to white Northern Democrats on the basis of >racism and the economic hardship caused by inflation under >Jimmy Carter. > >This year, the most dramatic demonstration of this maneuver >is the Bush campaign's slogan of "compassionate >conservatism." > >That Bush made a calculated attempt to solve his strategic >problem by appealing to Black and Latino people, women, and >lesbians and gay men, instead of opening up a reactionary >barrage, is testimony to the changed political terrain. > >Massive immigration and restructuring of industry have >increased the weight of nationally oppressed people within >the working class and the country in general. The numerous >struggles waged against police brutality, racial profiling >and the death penalty were not lost on the Bush forces. > >Bush put Gen. Colin Powell in the Republican Convention >spotlight, knowing that he would speak in favor of >affirmative action. He put Condoleeza Rice, a Black woman >foreign policy adviser, in a prime-time speaking slot, even >though she has no political position in the party. He had >his nephew speak in Spanish. > >Bush met with gay Republicans, after having earlier refused >to. He muted the anti-abortion rhetoric. And then he chose >Dick Cheney as his running mate, to assure the party's right >wing that it was all demagogy. > >GORE RUNS AGAINST CLINTON-GORE > >What the Bush campaign didn't know was that Gore's people >were reading the same research data and coming to the same >political conclusion--that there was enough mass suffering >and discontent among the workers and the population in >general that Gore too had to run against the results of the >Clinton-Gore period. > >Gore, like Bush, chose the most right-wing member of his >party's leadership, Joseph Lieberman, to be his running >mate. This was meant to assure Wall Street that what he was >about to do was just talk, not a fundamental shift. > >He then launched a rhetorical campaign against the rich and >powerful on behalf of working families. After Bush accused >him of "class warfare," Gore changed his terminology to "the >working middle class." > >The Clinton-Gore administration, together with the Gingrich >Republican leadership, carried out a fundamental attack on >the masses. They made balancing the budget the government's >fundamental goal. They cut social spending and used it to >pay off the bondholders. They slowed government borrowing to >increase the funds available to the capitalist class for >investment and speculation. > >The deed has been done. Now Gore is not only trying to cover >his tracks, but pose as the benefactor who will reduce by a >small fraction the child and female poverty increased and >perpetuated by the wholesale destruction of welfare. > >Gore proposes to have the government pay some of the onerous >costs of the health-care system, which was turned over >wholesale to the insurance companies under Clinton-Gore. He >says he supports affirmative action, which was vastly eroded >under Clinton. He says he is for choice, while he and >Clinton let the number of abortion facilities and providers >shrink under the assaults of the right wing. > >Like Bush, he stands firm for the racist death penalty. > >Like Bush, he wants to give the military $300 billion. > >And, like Bush, his goal is to reduce the deficit by paying >trillions of dollars to bondholders, while the personal >deficits of the workers and oppressed keep going up. > >Gore knows that the masses are aware of the multi-trillion- >dollar budget surplus. His proposals amount to putting Band- >Aids on the gaping wounds caused by the Clinton-Gore- >Gingrich alliance. > >'PHONY POPULISM,' SAYS BUSINESS WEEK > >Sections of the radical movement are trying to make the >struggle between Bush and Gore look like a life and death >struggle between big business and the people. That's >ridiculous. > >Wall Street and big business certainly don't see it that >way. Business Week of Sept. 18 states, "most industry reps >in Washington dismiss [Gore's] overheated rhetoric as 'phony >populism.'" > >And on Sept. 4 Business Week quoted Mark Vitner, an >economist at First Union Capital Markets in Charlotte, N.C.: >"Business knows that you can't pay much attention to what >politicians say during an election campaign, because they'll >say anything to get elected. No president will turn out to >be truly anti-business." > >As for Gore's war against the pharmaceutical industry, the >same issue of Business Week quotes the head of >Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, saying, >"On the real issues, not rhetoric, the Vice-President has >been a good friend of the pharmaceutical industry." > >On Aug. 28 Business Week wrote, "Gore's stance won plaudits >from the bond market mavens." One industry specialist said >that "the bond market would be happier under Gore than >Bush." > >In other words, these are two garden variety capitalist >politicians vying for votes so they can get their hands on >the capitalist state and all the spoils that come with it. > >One electoral barometer of the growing disillusionment with >the two big bourgeois parties is the significant interest in >Ralph Nader's campaign as the Green Party candidate. Many in >the movement regard his campaign as a breath of fresh air. >And understandably so. > >Nader is against the two big parties. He charges that >they've been completely taken over by big business. He >agitates against the power of the big corporations. He is >for the environment, universal medical care, workers' rights >and many other progressive causes, which should be >supported. > >He is criticized for "taking votes from Gore." But his left- >wing break with the imperialist parties is the most >progressive aspect of his campaign. > >WEAKNESSES OF NADER'S PROGRAM > >But on examination, Nader's program--and program is >everything in a party-building campaign like this--is vastly >inadequate to deal with the needs of the workers and >oppressed. > >First, while his campaign constitutes a political break from >the two major capitalist parties, Nader himself remains >firmly dedicated to the capitalist system of exploitation. > >Second, he significantly underrates the overriding >importance of the struggle against racism, national >oppression and all forms of oppression as being vital to the >healthy development of the progressive movement and society >in general. > >Third, while he rightfully addresses the plight of oppressed >people abroad who are exploited by the corporations, he does > _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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