InternetActivist.Org
29 November 2007
Ten Reasons Why "Save Darfur" is a PR Scam to Justify the Next US Oil and Resource Wars in Africa
[The following is reproduced verbatim from http://www.blackagendareport.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=453&Itemid=1 if you find something questionable, please visit the original article as there are many integrated links in the story that have not been reproduced here.]
Ten Reasons Why "Save Darfur" is a PR Scam to Justify the Next US Oil and Resource Wars in Africa - by BAR managing editor Bruce Dixon
The star-studded hue and cry to "Save Darfur" and "stop the genocide" has gained enormous traction in U.S. media along with bipartisan support in Congress and the White House. But the Congo, with ten to twenty times as many African dead over the same period is not called a "genocide" and passes almost unnoticed. Sudan sits atop lakes of oil. It has large supplies of uranium, and other minerals, significant water resources, and a strategic location near still more African oil and resources. The unasked question is whether the nation's Republican and Democratic foreign policy elite are using claims of genocide, and appeals for "humanitarian intervention" to grease the way for the next oil and resource wars on the African continent.
Top Ten Reasons to Suspect "Save Darfur" is a PR Scam to Justify US Military Intervention in African by BAR MAnaging Editor Bruce Dixon
The regular manufacture and the constant maintenance of false realities in the service of American empire is a core function of the public relations profession and the corporate news media. Whether it's fake news stories about wonder drugs and how toxic chemicals are good for you, bribed commentators and journalists discoursing on the benefits of No Child Left Behind, Hollywood stars advocating military intervention to save African orphans, or slick propaganda campaigns employing viral marketing techniques to reach out to college students, bloggers, churches and ordinary citizens, it pays to take a close look behind the facade.
Among the latest false realities being pushed upon the American people are the simplistic pictures of Black vs. Arab genocide in Darfur, and the proposed solution: a robust US-backed or US-led military intervention in Western Sudan. Increasing scrutiny is being focused upon the “Save Darfur” lobby and the Save Darfur Coalition; upon its founders, its finances, its methods and motivations and its truthfulness. In the spirit of furthering that examination we here present ten reasons to suspect that the "Save Darfur" campaign is a PR scam to justify US intervention in Africa.
1. It wouldn't be the first Big Lie our government and media elite told us to justify a war.
Elders among us can recall the Tonkin Gulf Incident, which the US government deliberately provoked to justify initiation of the war in Vietnam. This rationale was quickly succeeded by the need to help the struggling infant "democracy" in South Vietnam, and the still useful "fight 'em over there so we don't have to fight 'em over here" nonsense. More recently the bombings, invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq have been variously explained by people on the public payroll as necessary to "get Bin Laden" as revenge for 9-11, as measures to take "the world's most dangerous weapons" from the hands of "the world's most dangerous regimes", as measures to enable the struggling Iraqi "democracy" stand on its own two feet, and necessary because it's still better to "fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here".
2. It wouldn't even be the first time the U.S. government and media elite employed "genocide prevention" as a rationale for military intervention in an oil-rich region.
The 1995 US and NATO military intervention in Kosovo was supposedly a "peacekeeping" operation to stop a genocide. The lasting result of that campaign is Camp Bondsteel, one of the largest military bases on the planet. The U.S. is practically the only country in the world that maintains military bases outside its own borders. At just under a thousand acres, Camp Bondsteel offers the US military the ability to pre-position large quantities of equipment and supplies within striking distance of Caspian oil fields, pipeline routes and relevant sea lanes. It is also widely believed to be the site of one of the US's secret prison and torture facilities.
3. If stopping genocide in Africa really was on the agenda, why the focus on Sudan with 200,000 to 400,000 dead rather than Congo with five million dead?
“The notion that a quarter million Darfuri dead are a genocide and five million dead Congolese are not is vicious and absurd," according to Congolese activist Nita Evele. "What's happened and what is still happening in Congo is not a tribal conflict and it's not a civil war. It is an invasion. It is a genocide with a death toll of five million, twenty times that of Darfur, conducted for the purpose of plundering Congolese mineral and natural resources."
More than anything else, the selective and cynical application of the term "genocide" to Sudan, rather than to the Congo where ten to twenty times as many Africans have been murdered reveals the depth of hypocrisy around the "Save Darfur" movement. In the Congo, where local gangsters, mercenaries and warlords along with invading armies from Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Angola engage in slaughter, mass rape and regional depopulation on a scale that dwarfs anything happening in Sudan, all the players eagerly compete to guarantee that the extraction of vital coltan for Western computers and cell phones, the export of uranium for Western reactors and nukes, along with diamonds, gold, copper, timber and other Congolese resources continue undisturbed.
Former UN Ambassador Andrew Young and George H.W. Bush both serve on the board of Barrcik Gold, one of the largest and most active mining concerns in war-torn Congo. Evidently, with profits from the brutal extraction of Congolese wealth flowing to the West, there can be no Congolese "genocide" worth noting, much less interfering with. For their purposes, U.S. strategic planners may regard their Congolese model as the ideal means of capturing African wealth at minimal cost without the bother of official U.S. boots on the ground.
4. It's all about Sudanese oil.
Sudan, and the Darfur region in particular, sit atop a lake of oil. But Sudanese oil fields are not being developed and drilled by Exxon or Chevron or British Petroleum. Chinese banks, oil and construction firms are making the loans, drilling the wells, laying the pipelines to take Sudanese oil where they intend it to go, calling far too many shots for a twenty-first century in which the U.S. aspires to control the planet's energy supplies. A U.S. and NATO military intervention will solve that problem for U.S. planners.
5. It's all about Sudanese uranium, gum arabic and other natural resources.
Uranium is vital to the nuclear weapons industry and an essential fuel for nuclear reactors. Sudan possesses high quality deposits of uranium. Gum arabic is an essential ingredient in pharmaceuticals, candies and beverages like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and Sudanese exports of this commodity are 80% of the world's supply. When comprehensive U.S. sanctions against the Sudanese regime were being considered in 1997, industry lobbyists stepped up and secured an exemption in the sanctions bill to guarantee their supplies of this valuable Sudanese commodity. But an in-country U.S. and NATO military presence is a more secure guarantee that the extraction of Sudanese resources, like those of the Congo, flow westward to the U.S. and the European Union.
6. It's all about Sudan's strategic location
Sudan sits opposite Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, where a large fraction of the world's easily extracted oil will be for a few more years. Darfur borders on Libya and Chad, with their own vast oil resources, is within striking distance of West and Central Africa, and is a likely pipeline route. The Nile River flows through Sudan before reaching Egypt, and Southern Sudan water resources of regional significance too. With the creation of AFRICOM, the new Pentagon command for the African continent, the U.S. has made open and explicit its intention to plant a strategic footprint on the African continent. From permanent Sudanese bases, the U.S. military could influence the politics and ecocomies of Africa for a generation to come.
7. The backers and founders of the "Save Darfur" movement are the well-connected and well-funded U.S. foreign policy elite.
According to a copyrighted Washington Post story this summer:
"The “Save Darfur (Coalition) was created in 2005 by two groups concerned about genocide in the African country – the American Jewish World Service and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum...
“The coalition has a staff of 30 with expertise in policy and public relations. Its budget was about $15 million in the most recent fiscal year...
“Save Darfur will not say exactly how much it has spent on its ads, which this week have attempted to shame China, host of the 2008 Olympics, into easing its support for Sudan. But a coalition spokeswoman said the amount is in the millions of dollars.”
Though the "Save Darfur" PR campaign employs viral marketing techniques, reaching out to college students, even to black bloggers, it is not a grassroots affair, as were the movement against apartheid and in support of African liberation movements in South Africa, Namibia, Angola and Mozambique a generation ago. Top heavy with evangelical Christians who preach the coming war for the end of the world, and with elements known for their uncritical support of Israeli rejectionism in the Middle East, the Save Darfur movement is clearly an establishment affair, a propaganda campaign that spends millions of dollars each month to manfacture consent for US military intervention in Africa under the cloak of stopping or preventing genocide.
8. None of the funds raised by the "Save Darfur Coalition", the flagship of the "Save Darfur Movement" go to help needy Africans on the ground in Darfur, according to stories in both the Washington Post and the New York Times.
“None of the money collected by Save Darfur goes to help the victims and their families. Instead, the coalition pours its proceeds into advocacy efforts that are primarily designed to persuade governments to act.”
9. "Save Darfur" partisans in the U.S. are not interested in political negotiations to end the conflict in Darfur
President Bush has openly and repeatedly attempted to throw monkey wrenches at peace negotiations to end the war in Darfur. Even pro-intervention scholars and humanitarian organizations active on the ground have criticized the U.S. for endangering humanitarian relief workers, and for effectively urging rebel parties in Darfur to refuse peace talks and hold out for U.S. and NATO intervention on their behalf.
The PR campaign which depicts the conflict as strictly a racial affair, in which Arabs, who are generally despised in the US media anyway, are exterminating the black population of Sudan, is slick, seamless and attractive, and seems to leave no room for negotiation. But in fact, many of Sudan's 'Arabs", even the Janjiweed, are also black. In any case, they were armed and unleashed by a government which has the power to disarm them if it chooses, and refusing to talk to that government's negotiators is a sure way to avoid any settlement.
10. Blackwater and other U.S. mercenary contractors, the unofficial armed wings of the Republican party and the Pentagon are eagerly pitching their services as part of the solution to the Darfur crisis.
"Chris Taylor, head of strategy for Blackwater, says his company has a database of thousands of former police and military officers for security assignments. He says Blackwater personnel could set up perimeters and guard Darfurian villages and refugee camp in support of the U.N. Blackwater officials say it would not take many men to fend off the Janjaweed, a militia that is supported by the Sudanese government and attacks villages on camelback."
Apparently Blackwater doesn't need to come to the Congo, where hunger and malnutrition, depopulation, mass rape and the disappearance of schools, hospitals and civil society into vast law free zones ruled by an ever-changing cast of African proxies (like the son of the late and unlamented Idi Amin), all under a veil of complicit media silence already constitute the perfect business-friendly environment for siphoning off the vast wealth of that country at minimal cost.
Look for the adoption of the Congolese model across the wide areas of Africa that U.S. strategic planners call "ungoverned spaces". Just don't look expect to see details on the evening news, or hear about them from Oprah, George Clooney or Angelina Jolie.
Ten Reasons Why "Save Darfur" is a PR Scam to Justify the Next US Oil and Resource Wars in Africa - by BAR managing editor Bruce Dixon
The star-studded hue and cry to "Save Darfur" and "stop the genocide" has gained enormous traction in U.S. media along with bipartisan support in Congress and the White House. But the Congo, with ten to twenty times as many African dead over the same period is not called a "genocide" and passes almost unnoticed. Sudan sits atop lakes of oil. It has large supplies of uranium, and other minerals, significant water resources, and a strategic location near still more African oil and resources. The unasked question is whether the nation's Republican and Democratic foreign policy elite are using claims of genocide, and appeals for "humanitarian intervention" to grease the way for the next oil and resource wars on the African continent.
Top Ten Reasons to Suspect "Save Darfur" is a PR Scam to Justify US Military Intervention in African by BAR MAnaging Editor Bruce Dixon
The regular manufacture and the constant maintenance of false realities in the service of American empire is a core function of the public relations profession and the corporate news media. Whether it's fake news stories about wonder drugs and how toxic chemicals are good for you, bribed commentators and journalists discoursing on the benefits of No Child Left Behind, Hollywood stars advocating military intervention to save African orphans, or slick propaganda campaigns employing viral marketing techniques to reach out to college students, bloggers, churches and ordinary citizens, it pays to take a close look behind the facade.
Among the latest false realities being pushed upon the American people are the simplistic pictures of Black vs. Arab genocide in Darfur, and the proposed solution: a robust US-backed or US-led military intervention in Western Sudan. Increasing scrutiny is being focused upon the “Save Darfur” lobby and the Save Darfur Coalition; upon its founders, its finances, its methods and motivations and its truthfulness. In the spirit of furthering that examination we here present ten reasons to suspect that the "Save Darfur" campaign is a PR scam to justify US intervention in Africa.
1. It wouldn't be the first Big Lie our government and media elite told us to justify a war.
Elders among us can recall the Tonkin Gulf Incident, which the US government deliberately provoked to justify initiation of the war in Vietnam. This rationale was quickly succeeded by the need to help the struggling infant "democracy" in South Vietnam, and the still useful "fight 'em over there so we don't have to fight 'em over here" nonsense. More recently the bombings, invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq have been variously explained by people on the public payroll as necessary to "get Bin Laden" as revenge for 9-11, as measures to take "the world's most dangerous weapons" from the hands of "the world's most dangerous regimes", as measures to enable the struggling Iraqi "democracy" stand on its own two feet, and necessary because it's still better to "fight them over there so we don't have to fight them here".
2. It wouldn't even be the first time the U.S. government and media elite employed "genocide prevention" as a rationale for military intervention in an oil-rich region.
The 1995 US and NATO military intervention in Kosovo was supposedly a "peacekeeping" operation to stop a genocide. The lasting result of that campaign is Camp Bondsteel, one of the largest military bases on the planet. The U.S. is practically the only country in the world that maintains military bases outside its own borders. At just under a thousand acres, Camp Bondsteel offers the US military the ability to pre-position large quantities of equipment and supplies within striking distance of Caspian oil fields, pipeline routes and relevant sea lanes. It is also widely believed to be the site of one of the US's secret prison and torture facilities.
3. If stopping genocide in Africa really was on the agenda, why the focus on Sudan with 200,000 to 400,000 dead rather than Congo with five million dead?
“The notion that a quarter million Darfuri dead are a genocide and five million dead Congolese are not is vicious and absurd," according to Congolese activist Nita Evele. "What's happened and what is still happening in Congo is not a tribal conflict and it's not a civil war. It is an invasion. It is a genocide with a death toll of five million, twenty times that of Darfur, conducted for the purpose of plundering Congolese mineral and natural resources."
More than anything else, the selective and cynical application of the term "genocide" to Sudan, rather than to the Congo where ten to twenty times as many Africans have been murdered reveals the depth of hypocrisy around the "Save Darfur" movement. In the Congo, where local gangsters, mercenaries and warlords along with invading armies from Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Angola engage in slaughter, mass rape and regional depopulation on a scale that dwarfs anything happening in Sudan, all the players eagerly compete to guarantee that the extraction of vital coltan for Western computers and cell phones, the export of uranium for Western reactors and nukes, along with diamonds, gold, copper, timber and other Congolese resources continue undisturbed.
Former UN Ambassador Andrew Young and George H.W. Bush both serve on the board of Barrcik Gold, one of the largest and most active mining concerns in war-torn Congo. Evidently, with profits from the brutal extraction of Congolese wealth flowing to the West, there can be no Congolese "genocide" worth noting, much less interfering with. For their purposes, U.S. strategic planners may regard their Congolese model as the ideal means of capturing African wealth at minimal cost without the bother of official U.S. boots on the ground.
4. It's all about Sudanese oil.
Sudan, and the Darfur region in particular, sit atop a lake of oil. But Sudanese oil fields are not being developed and drilled by Exxon or Chevron or British Petroleum. Chinese banks, oil and construction firms are making the loans, drilling the wells, laying the pipelines to take Sudanese oil where they intend it to go, calling far too many shots for a twenty-first century in which the U.S. aspires to control the planet's energy supplies. A U.S. and NATO military intervention will solve that problem for U.S. planners.
5. It's all about Sudanese uranium, gum arabic and other natural resources.
Uranium is vital to the nuclear weapons industry and an essential fuel for nuclear reactors. Sudan possesses high quality deposits of uranium. Gum arabic is an essential ingredient in pharmaceuticals, candies and beverages like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and Sudanese exports of this commodity are 80% of the world's supply. When comprehensive U.S. sanctions against the Sudanese regime were being considered in 1997, industry lobbyists stepped up and secured an exemption in the sanctions bill to guarantee their supplies of this valuable Sudanese commodity. But an in-country U.S. and NATO military presence is a more secure guarantee that the extraction of Sudanese resources, like those of the Congo, flow westward to the U.S. and the European Union.
6. It's all about Sudan's strategic location
Sudan sits opposite Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, where a large fraction of the world's easily extracted oil will be for a few more years. Darfur borders on Libya and Chad, with their own vast oil resources, is within striking distance of West and Central Africa, and is a likely pipeline route. The Nile River flows through Sudan before reaching Egypt, and Southern Sudan water resources of regional significance too. With the creation of AFRICOM, the new Pentagon command for the African continent, the U.S. has made open and explicit its intention to plant a strategic footprint on the African continent. From permanent Sudanese bases, the U.S. military could influence the politics and ecocomies of Africa for a generation to come.
7. The backers and founders of the "Save Darfur" movement are the well-connected and well-funded U.S. foreign policy elite.
According to a copyrighted Washington Post story this summer:
"The “Save Darfur (Coalition) was created in 2005 by two groups concerned about genocide in the African country – the American Jewish World Service and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum...
“The coalition has a staff of 30 with expertise in policy and public relations. Its budget was about $15 million in the most recent fiscal year...
“Save Darfur will not say exactly how much it has spent on its ads, which this week have attempted to shame China, host of the 2008 Olympics, into easing its support for Sudan. But a coalition spokeswoman said the amount is in the millions of dollars.”
Though the "Save Darfur" PR campaign employs viral marketing techniques, reaching out to college students, even to black bloggers, it is not a grassroots affair, as were the movement against apartheid and in support of African liberation movements in South Africa, Namibia, Angola and Mozambique a generation ago. Top heavy with evangelical Christians who preach the coming war for the end of the world, and with elements known for their uncritical support of Israeli rejectionism in the Middle East, the Save Darfur movement is clearly an establishment affair, a propaganda campaign that spends millions of dollars each month to manfacture consent for US military intervention in Africa under the cloak of stopping or preventing genocide.
8. None of the funds raised by the "Save Darfur Coalition", the flagship of the "Save Darfur Movement" go to help needy Africans on the ground in Darfur, according to stories in both the Washington Post and the New York Times.
“None of the money collected by Save Darfur goes to help the victims and their families. Instead, the coalition pours its proceeds into advocacy efforts that are primarily designed to persuade governments to act.”
9. "Save Darfur" partisans in the U.S. are not interested in political negotiations to end the conflict in Darfur
President Bush has openly and repeatedly attempted to throw monkey wrenches at peace negotiations to end the war in Darfur. Even pro-intervention scholars and humanitarian organizations active on the ground have criticized the U.S. for endangering humanitarian relief workers, and for effectively urging rebel parties in Darfur to refuse peace talks and hold out for U.S. and NATO intervention on their behalf.
The PR campaign which depicts the conflict as strictly a racial affair, in which Arabs, who are generally despised in the US media anyway, are exterminating the black population of Sudan, is slick, seamless and attractive, and seems to leave no room for negotiation. But in fact, many of Sudan's 'Arabs", even the Janjiweed, are also black. In any case, they were armed and unleashed by a government which has the power to disarm them if it chooses, and refusing to talk to that government's negotiators is a sure way to avoid any settlement.
10. Blackwater and other U.S. mercenary contractors, the unofficial armed wings of the Republican party and the Pentagon are eagerly pitching their services as part of the solution to the Darfur crisis.
"Chris Taylor, head of strategy for Blackwater, says his company has a database of thousands of former police and military officers for security assignments. He says Blackwater personnel could set up perimeters and guard Darfurian villages and refugee camp in support of the U.N. Blackwater officials say it would not take many men to fend off the Janjaweed, a militia that is supported by the Sudanese government and attacks villages on camelback."
Apparently Blackwater doesn't need to come to the Congo, where hunger and malnutrition, depopulation, mass rape and the disappearance of schools, hospitals and civil society into vast law free zones ruled by an ever-changing cast of African proxies (like the son of the late and unlamented Idi Amin), all under a veil of complicit media silence already constitute the perfect business-friendly environment for siphoning off the vast wealth of that country at minimal cost.
Look for the adoption of the Congolese model across the wide areas of Africa that U.S. strategic planners call "ungoverned spaces". Just don't look expect to see details on the evening news, or hear about them from Oprah, George Clooney or Angelina Jolie.
26 November 2007
Online One State (Israel/Palestine) Bibliography Updated
The Online One State Bibliography Project - http://www.onestate.org or http://oss.internetactivist.org/ - has been updated. New additions include:
New Book Recommendations:
Where Now For Palestine: The Demise of the Two-State Solution
Edited by Jamil Hilal, http://www.zedbooks.co.uk/book.asp?bookdetail=4110
Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State
Jonathan Cook, http://www.plutobooks.com/cgi-local/nplutobrows.pl?chkisbn=9780745325552
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Philosophical Essays on Self-Determination, Terrorism and the One-State Solution
Raja Halwani and Tomis Kapitan, http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=280823
Holy Land Mosaic: Stories of Cooperation and Coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians
By Daniel Gavron, http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=074254012X&thepassedurl=[thepassedurl]
Pro-Unity One State Articles:
Ben-Dor, Oren "Overcoming Zionism" ZNet, 20 November 2007, http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=14334
Brooke, Peter "The One State Solution as a Jewish Liberation Struggle" self-published, undated, http://web.ukonline.co.uk/pbrooke/bptdg/programmes/0601-/onestate/jewishliberation
Brooke, Peter "Israel-Palestine: Bankruptcy of the two-state solution" Talk to the Brecon Political and Theological Discussion Group, 4 April 2006, http://web.ukonline.co.uk/pbrooke/bptdg/programmes/0601-/onestate/talk
Halfdram, Ernie "How many States?" The Bureau of Counterpropaganda (blog), 19 June 2007, http://bureauofcounterpropaganda.blogspot.com/2007/06/how-many-states.html
Karkar, Sonja "Peace without justice is no peace at all" The Age, 23 October 2007, http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/peace-without-justice-is-no-peace-at-all/2007/10/22/1192940983493.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
Karmi, Ghada "Israel the roadblock to peace in Middle East" The Age, 11 October 2007, http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/israel-the-roadblock-to-peace-in-middle-east/2007/10/10/1191695988161.html
Maunder, Jonathan "Return of the one-state solution" International Socialism, 1 October 2007, http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=383&issue=116
Miles, Jim "Uncertain Outcomes: The Israeli-Palestine Question" Palestine Chronicle (blog), 29 October 2007, http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story-10290743937.htm
Qumsiyeh, Mazin "From Nakba to Gaza" Qumsiyeh: A Human Rights Web, Undated 2007, http://www.qumsiyeh.org/fromnakbatogaza/
Satin, Mark, Ed. "The one-state solution is the most visionary AND the most sensible" Radical Middle Newsletter, April 2007, http://www.radicalmiddle.com/x_onestate.htm
Sigler, John "Benjamin Pogrund: Blinded to Reality by Zionist Ideology" One Democratic Secular State for Israel/Palestine, 6 August 2007, http://one-israel-palestine.blogspot.com/2007/08/benjamin-pogrund-blinded-to-reality-by.html
Sparks, Allister "Israel's hopes of a two-state solution is a fantasy" Pretoria News, 13 June 2007, http://www.pretorianews.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3880638
White, Ben "The one-state reality" The Electronic Intifada, 13 November 2007, http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9097.shtml
Anti-Unity Ethnic Separatist Articles:
Avnery, Uri "Omelettes into Eggs" Media Monitors Network 24 November 2007, http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/47769
Dershowitz, Alan "Q&A with Alan Dershowitz" Jerusalem Post 20 November 2005, http://info.jpost.com/C004/QandA/qa.dershowitz.html
Freedman, Seth "The best deal on offer" The Guardian 23 November 2007, http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/seth_freedman/2007/11/the_best_deal_on_offer.html
Honest Reporting "A One-State Solution: Advocating Israel's Destruction" HonestReporting. com 24 October 2007, http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/new/A_One-State_Solution_Advocating_Israels_Destruction_.asp
Isseroff, Ami "Israel and Palestinians: The crucial issue" MideastWeb Middle East Web Log 13 November 2007, http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000646.htm
Rubenstein, Colin "That road does not lead to peace" The Age 17 October 2007, http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/that-road-does-not-lead-to-peace/2007/10/16/1192300766277.html
Wallerstein, Immanuel "Last Call for a Two State Solution" ZNet 11 November 2007, http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=14259
Other Related Articles:
Bahour, Sam "Hamas' Shock and Awe" Media Monitors, 18 June 2007, http://world.mediamonitors.net/headlines/hamas_shock_and_awe
Benvenisti, Eyal & Shaham, Dahlia "Facially Neutral Discrimination and the Israeli Supreme Court" 36 N.Y.U. J. INT’L L. & POL. 677 (2004), 2 June 2005, http://www.law.nyu.edu/journals/jilp/issues/36/36_4_Benvenisti-Shaham.pdf
Cohen-Eliya, Moshe "Discrimination against Arabs in Israel in Public Accommodations" 36 N.Y.U. J. INT’L L. & POL. 717 (2004), 2 June 2005, http://www.law.nyu.edu/journals/jilp/issues/36/36_4_Cohen-Eliya.pdf
Coursen-Neff, Zama "Discrimination against Palestinian Arab Children in the Israeli Educational System" 36 N.Y.U. J. INT’L L. & POL. 749 (2004), 2 June 2005, http://www.law.nyu.edu/journals/jilp/issues/36/36_4_Coursen-Neff.pdf
Estreicher, Samuel "Arab Citizens of Israel: The Challenge for Israel and Its Critics" 36 N.Y.U. J. INT’L L. & POL. 673 (2004), 2 June 2005, http://www.law.nyu.edu/journals/jilp/issues/36/36_4_Estreicher.pdf
Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain "Palestine - Why only a One State Solution will Work" (Islamist Caliphate argument) Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, Undated 2007, http://www.hizb.org.uk/hizb/resources/issues-explained/palestine---why-only-a-one-state-solution-will-work.html
Margalioth, Sharon Rabin "Labor Market Discrimination Against Arab Israeli Citizens: Can Something Be Done?" 36 N.Y.U. J. INT’L L. & POL. 845 (2004), 2 June 2005, http://www.law.nyu.edu/journals/jilp/issues/36/36_4_SR-Margalioth.pdf
Margalioth, Yoram "Demographics and Other Culture-Based Preferences Versus Discrimination" 36 N.Y.U. J. INT’L L. & POL. 817 (2004), 2 June 2005, http://www.law.nyu.edu/journals/jilp/issues/36/36_4_Y-Margalioth.pdf
Saban, Ilan "Minority Rights in Deeply Divided Societies: A Framework for Analysis and the Case of Arab-Palestinian Minority in Israel" 36 N.Y.U. J. INT’L L. & POL. 885 (2004), 2 June 2005, http://www.law.nyu.edu/journals/jilp/issues/36/36_4_Saban.pdf
Twair, Pat & Samir "Israeli-Palestinian Confederation Debated" Washington Report of Middle Eastern Affairs, Vol. XXV, No. 4, p.54, May/June 2006, http://www.wrmea.com/archives/May-June_2006/0605053.html
Zakheim, Roger I. "Israel in the Human Rights Era: Finding a Moral Justification for the Jewish State" 36 N.Y.U. J. INT’L L. & POL. 1005 (2004), 2 June 2005, http://www.law.nyu.edu/journals/jilp/issues/36/36_4_Zakheim.pdf
Online Discussion Fora:
One State Forum: Promoting the Vision of One Democratic State in Israel/Palestine, http://www.onestate.net/forum/index.php
Organizations With Pro-Unity Positions:
AJRAS: Towards a Unitary Democratic State [Progressive] http://palfirst.org/co/ and/or أجراس العودة- http://www.ajras.org/
Challenging the Boundaries: A Single State in Palestine/Israel (Conference) [Progressive] http://www.onestate.net/
Palestine/Israel: One Country, One State / Palestina/Israel: un país, un Estado (Conference) [Progressive] http://www.universidadnomada.net/spip.php?article147 and/or http://www.universidadnomada.net/IMG/pdf/PROGRAMMEPALESTINEISRAELONECOUNTRYONESTATE.pdf
New Book Recommendations:
Where Now For Palestine: The Demise of the Two-State Solution
Edited by Jamil Hilal, http://www.zedbooks.co.uk/book.asp?bookdetail=4110
Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State
Jonathan Cook, http://www.plutobooks.com/cgi-local/nplutobrows.pl?chkisbn=9780745325552
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Philosophical Essays on Self-Determination, Terrorism and the One-State Solution
Raja Halwani and Tomis Kapitan, http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?PID=280823
Holy Land Mosaic: Stories of Cooperation and Coexistence between Israelis and Palestinians
By Daniel Gavron, http://www.rowmanlittlefield.com/Catalog/SingleBook.shtml?command=Search&db=^DB/CATALOG.db&eqSKUdata=074254012X&thepassedurl=[thepassedurl]
Pro-Unity One State Articles:
Ben-Dor, Oren "Overcoming Zionism" ZNet, 20 November 2007, http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=14334
Brooke, Peter "The One State Solution as a Jewish Liberation Struggle" self-published, undated, http://web.ukonline.co.uk/pbrooke/bptdg/programmes/0601-/onestate/jewishliberation
Brooke, Peter "Israel-Palestine: Bankruptcy of the two-state solution" Talk to the Brecon Political and Theological Discussion Group, 4 April 2006, http://web.ukonline.co.uk/pbrooke/bptdg/programmes/0601-/onestate/talk
Halfdram, Ernie "How many States?" The Bureau of Counterpropaganda (blog), 19 June 2007, http://bureauofcounterpropaganda.blogspot.com/2007/06/how-many-states.html
Karkar, Sonja "Peace without justice is no peace at all" The Age, 23 October 2007, http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/peace-without-justice-is-no-peace-at-all/2007/10/22/1192940983493.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
Karmi, Ghada "Israel the roadblock to peace in Middle East" The Age, 11 October 2007, http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/israel-the-roadblock-to-peace-in-middle-east/2007/10/10/1191695988161.html
Maunder, Jonathan "Return of the one-state solution" International Socialism, 1 October 2007, http://www.isj.org.uk/index.php4?id=383&issue=116
Miles, Jim "Uncertain Outcomes: The Israeli-Palestine Question" Palestine Chronicle (blog), 29 October 2007, http://www.palestinechronicle.com/story-10290743937.htm
Qumsiyeh, Mazin "From Nakba to Gaza" Qumsiyeh: A Human Rights Web, Undated 2007, http://www.qumsiyeh.org/fromnakbatogaza/
Satin, Mark, Ed. "The one-state solution is the most visionary AND the most sensible" Radical Middle Newsletter, April 2007, http://www.radicalmiddle.com/x_onestate.htm
Sigler, John "Benjamin Pogrund: Blinded to Reality by Zionist Ideology" One Democratic Secular State for Israel/Palestine, 6 August 2007, http://one-israel-palestine.blogspot.com/2007/08/benjamin-pogrund-blinded-to-reality-by.html
Sparks, Allister "Israel's hopes of a two-state solution is a fantasy" Pretoria News, 13 June 2007, http://www.pretorianews.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3880638
White, Ben "The one-state reality" The Electronic Intifada, 13 November 2007, http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9097.shtml
Anti-Unity Ethnic Separatist Articles:
Avnery, Uri "Omelettes into Eggs" Media Monitors Network 24 November 2007, http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/47769
Dershowitz, Alan "Q&A with Alan Dershowitz" Jerusalem Post 20 November 2005, http://info.jpost.com/C004/QandA/qa.dershowitz.html
Freedman, Seth "The best deal on offer" The Guardian 23 November 2007, http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/seth_freedman/2007/11/the_best_deal_on_offer.html
Honest Reporting "A One-State Solution: Advocating Israel's Destruction" HonestReporting. com 24 October 2007, http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/new/A_One-State_Solution_Advocating_Israels_Destruction_.asp
Isseroff, Ami "Israel and Palestinians: The crucial issue" MideastWeb Middle East Web Log 13 November 2007, http://www.mideastweb.org/log/archives/00000646.htm
Rubenstein, Colin "That road does not lead to peace" The Age 17 October 2007, http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/that-road-does-not-lead-to-peace/2007/10/16/1192300766277.html
Wallerstein, Immanuel "Last Call for a Two State Solution" ZNet 11 November 2007, http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=14259
Other Related Articles:
Bahour, Sam "Hamas' Shock and Awe" Media Monitors, 18 June 2007, http://world.mediamonitors.net/headlines/hamas_shock_and_awe
Benvenisti, Eyal & Shaham, Dahlia "Facially Neutral Discrimination and the Israeli Supreme Court" 36 N.Y.U. J. INT’L L. & POL. 677 (2004), 2 June 2005, http://www.law.nyu.edu/journals/jilp/issues/36/36_4_Benvenisti-Shaham.pdf
Cohen-Eliya, Moshe "Discrimination against Arabs in Israel in Public Accommodations" 36 N.Y.U. J. INT’L L. & POL. 717 (2004), 2 June 2005, http://www.law.nyu.edu/journals/jilp/issues/36/36_4_Cohen-Eliya.pdf
Coursen-Neff, Zama "Discrimination against Palestinian Arab Children in the Israeli Educational System" 36 N.Y.U. J. INT’L L. & POL. 749 (2004), 2 June 2005, http://www.law.nyu.edu/journals/jilp/issues/36/36_4_Coursen-Neff.pdf
Estreicher, Samuel "Arab Citizens of Israel: The Challenge for Israel and Its Critics" 36 N.Y.U. J. INT’L L. & POL. 673 (2004), 2 June 2005, http://www.law.nyu.edu/journals/jilp/issues/36/36_4_Estreicher.pdf
Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain "Palestine - Why only a One State Solution will Work" (Islamist Caliphate argument) Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain, Undated 2007, http://www.hizb.org.uk/hizb/resources/issues-explained/palestine---why-only-a-one-state-solution-will-work.html
Margalioth, Sharon Rabin "Labor Market Discrimination Against Arab Israeli Citizens: Can Something Be Done?" 36 N.Y.U. J. INT’L L. & POL. 845 (2004), 2 June 2005, http://www.law.nyu.edu/journals/jilp/issues/36/36_4_SR-Margalioth.pdf
Margalioth, Yoram "Demographics and Other Culture-Based Preferences Versus Discrimination" 36 N.Y.U. J. INT’L L. & POL. 817 (2004), 2 June 2005, http://www.law.nyu.edu/journals/jilp/issues/36/36_4_Y-Margalioth.pdf
Saban, Ilan "Minority Rights in Deeply Divided Societies: A Framework for Analysis and the Case of Arab-Palestinian Minority in Israel" 36 N.Y.U. J. INT’L L. & POL. 885 (2004), 2 June 2005, http://www.law.nyu.edu/journals/jilp/issues/36/36_4_Saban.pdf
Twair, Pat & Samir "Israeli-Palestinian Confederation Debated" Washington Report of Middle Eastern Affairs, Vol. XXV, No. 4, p.54, May/June 2006, http://www.wrmea.com/archives/May-June_2006/0605053.html
Zakheim, Roger I. "Israel in the Human Rights Era: Finding a Moral Justification for the Jewish State" 36 N.Y.U. J. INT’L L. & POL. 1005 (2004), 2 June 2005, http://www.law.nyu.edu/journals/jilp/issues/36/36_4_Zakheim.pdf
Online Discussion Fora:
One State Forum: Promoting the Vision of One Democratic State in Israel/Palestine, http://www.onestate.net/forum/index.php
Organizations With Pro-Unity Positions:
AJRAS: Towards a Unitary Democratic State [Progressive] http://palfirst.org/co/ and/or أجراس العودة- http://www.ajras.org/
Challenging the Boundaries: A Single State in Palestine/Israel (Conference) [Progressive] http://www.onestate.net/
Palestine/Israel: One Country, One State / Palestina/Israel: un país, un Estado (Conference) [Progressive] http://www.universidadnomada.net/spip.php?article147 and/or http://www.universidadnomada.net/IMG/pdf/PROGRAMMEPALESTINEISRAELONECOUNTRYONESTATE.pdf
23 November 2007
Americans for Chavez News Scroller Updated
The News Scroller on the Americans for Chavez website, a project of Bolivarian Circle 'Chief Tierra Blanca' (for more see: http://www.americans-for-chavez.com ) has now been updated. New articles include:
"Massive Student Demonstration In Support Of Constitutional Reforms"
"Venezuela's President Chávez offers George W. Bush to seek help in asylum"
"James Jordan: Q&A to USA ...What in the world is 'wrong' with Venezuela?"
"Counterrevolution raises its head; Heinz Dieterich and General Baduel"
"Day in Solidarity with Venezuela 12/2/07"
"Venezuela and Iran Strengthen 'Anti-Imperialist' Alliance"
"The Struggle for a United Socialist Party of Venezuela"
"Venezuela: OPEC Should Become a Political Actor against Imperialism"
"States of Emergency: Contrasting examples in Pakistan, Venezuela and USA"
"Venezuela's indigenous tribes support Chávez' constitutional reform proposal"
"Venezuela reduced poverty and indigence levels by 18.4% and 12.3% in 2006"
"'We're Number 2!' And Other Stories You'll Never Read About Venezuela"
"Venezuelan Legislator: Opposition Distributes Lies about Constitutional Reform"
"Momentum Builds in Support of Venezuela's Constitutional Reform"
"US Media Bias and Recent Student Violence in Venezuela"
"Spain's United Left admits Chávez' right to reject Aznar's pro-coup attitude"
"Venezuela will start developing a nuclear power sector for peaceful purposes"
"Venezuela becomes China's most important Latin American business partner"
"Chávez: Reform strengthens Venezuelan State in fight against Neo-Liberalism"
"Venezuela to Inaugurate II Cultural Festival with the People of Africa"
"Venezuela at loggerheads with USA's bullying tactics against smaller countries"
"North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) had plan to invade Venezuela"
"Chávez proposes OPEC sell oil cheaper to poor countries"
"Dual Power in the Venezuelan Revolution"
¡Viva la Revolución Bolivariana!
¡Viva El Processo!
¡Viva Chavez!
Los amigos americanos de Presidente Chavez y la Revolución en inglés...
----
Americans for Chavez
http://www.americans-for-chavez.com
Bolivarian Circle 'Chief Tierra Blanca'
"Massive Student Demonstration In Support Of Constitutional Reforms"
"Venezuela's President Chávez offers George W. Bush to seek help in asylum"
"James Jordan: Q&A to USA ...What in the world is 'wrong' with Venezuela?"
"Counterrevolution raises its head; Heinz Dieterich and General Baduel"
"Day in Solidarity with Venezuela 12/2/07"
"Venezuela and Iran Strengthen 'Anti-Imperialist' Alliance"
"The Struggle for a United Socialist Party of Venezuela"
"Venezuela: OPEC Should Become a Political Actor against Imperialism"
"States of Emergency: Contrasting examples in Pakistan, Venezuela and USA"
"Venezuela's indigenous tribes support Chávez' constitutional reform proposal"
"Venezuela reduced poverty and indigence levels by 18.4% and 12.3% in 2006"
"'We're Number 2!' And Other Stories You'll Never Read About Venezuela"
"Venezuelan Legislator: Opposition Distributes Lies about Constitutional Reform"
"Momentum Builds in Support of Venezuela's Constitutional Reform"
"US Media Bias and Recent Student Violence in Venezuela"
"Spain's United Left admits Chávez' right to reject Aznar's pro-coup attitude"
"Venezuela will start developing a nuclear power sector for peaceful purposes"
"Venezuela becomes China's most important Latin American business partner"
"Chávez: Reform strengthens Venezuelan State in fight against Neo-Liberalism"
"Venezuela to Inaugurate II Cultural Festival with the People of Africa"
"Venezuela at loggerheads with USA's bullying tactics against smaller countries"
"North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) had plan to invade Venezuela"
"Chávez proposes OPEC sell oil cheaper to poor countries"
"Dual Power in the Venezuelan Revolution"
¡Viva la Revolución Bolivariana!
¡Viva El Processo!
¡Viva Chavez!
Los amigos americanos de Presidente Chavez y la Revolución en inglés...
----
Americans for Chavez
http://www.americans-for-chavez.com
Bolivarian Circle 'Chief Tierra Blanca'
13 November 2007
Response to the anti-Chávez article in Adbusters #74
I’ve been a regular reader of Adbusters for quite a while now and more often than not there is always at least one article per issue that I strongly agree with and at least one that I strongly disagree with. That being said, I’m taking the atypical measure of writing to take exception to Sean Condon’s “turning tyrant” in Issue #74 regarding President Chávez of Venezuela. [URL: http://adbusters.org/the_magazine/74/Turning_Tyrant.html ]
Like any modern government, there are certainly fair grounds to be critical of the Bolivarian regime in Venezuela, for example its relations with the counter-progressive regime of Iran and its growing militarism. Nevertheless, when subjected to a basic realpolitik “cost/benefit analysis,” I believe the Bolivarian regime remains one of the most progressive governments in the world and still deserves the support and solidarity it has received from progressive elements elsewhere. However, to substantiate my point, some of Mr. Condon’s primary contentions do deserve a bit of comment.
First, with respect to RCTV, this particular private media outlet actively aided and abetted in the 2002 coup attempt and the effort to illegally overthrow the government of Venezuela. No state can realistically be expected to actively license and authorize the operation of a media outlet that has moved beyond criticism to active – and utterly undeniable – sedition against the state, its people, and its legal representative government. Most of Venezuela’s media remains privately owned and operated and remains actively critical of the Chávez government and its initiatives – all of which is to be expected in any free state – however, RCTV in particular crossed the line between exercising freedom of speech and complicity in an armed insurrection against the state in the interests of a foreign power (the U.S., the only government to immediately recognize the coup). Rest assured that if Adbusters were to move beyond active criticism (freedom of speech) and into direct mobilization and support of an armed insurrection against the Canadian government and the abduction of the prime minister, it too would be shut down and few would fault the Canadian government for doing so.
Secondly, regarding the current proposal to end presidential term limits and some of the related constitutional reforms, I agree that this is certainly somewhat less than encouraging, but again, it is not being done without the active consent and endorsement of the Venezuelan people. Specifically, on December 2 of this year the Venezuelan people – not the legislature – will have the direct ability to approve or deny the proposed constitutional reforms in a national referendum. The idea that great leaders with great ideas might be allowed to continue in their positions longer than normal – with the consent of the people – is hardly unique to Venezuela; remember even in the U.S. we chose to elect FDR for four successive terms (1932, 1936, 1940, & 1944) without lapsing into an authoritarian dictatorship.
The question of the autonomy of Venezuela’s central bank - Banco Central de Venezuela – is another of the constitutional reforms suggested by the President Chávez as part of the Bolivarian Process and is of vital import if the Process is to advance. Essentially, Article 318 of the reforms brings the central bank under control of the elected government of the people so that its policies – specifically in relation to monetary policy - support the interests of the people over the interests of the international markets. That is, contrary to the neo-liberal “Washington Consensus” in which the well being of people is secondary to the well being of international markets and the plutocratic elites, this proposed reform will allow the government and central bank to more effectively coordinate economic policies in support of the Bolivarian Process for the benefit of the Venezuelan people. To quote the Embassy of Venezuela fact sheet: “As Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz has argued, the many tradeoffs involved in crafting monetary policy and promoting economic growth in developing countries ‘cannot be relegated to technocrats, particularly when those technocrats place the interests of one segment of society above others.’”
Finally, regarding the notion of expelling foreigners that criticize the government, this presentation by Mr. Condon is somewhat misleading. While Chávez did indeed make this statement, there has been no real change in policy and one must also keep such comments in the context of a myriad of foreign enterprises openly working in Venezuela to undermine the regime. Specifically, these foreign subversives include USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Conservative Party (UK), American Security Council Foundation, assorted Latin American Rightists, and so on. Chávez has very real and legitimate reasons to be wary of foreign critics entering his country and agitating against freedom and democracy in favor of free markets and plutocratic exploitation.
Anyway, make no mistake about it, a number of decisions by the Chávez government do in fact provide reason to worry, but to date there is nothing that should result in “dread and disappointment.”
John Sigler
Bolivarian Circle ‘Chief Tierra Blanca’
a/k/a “Americans for Chavez”
http://www.americans-for-chavez.com
Notes, which can be included or excluded as you will:
“…actively aided and abetted in the 2002 coup attempt…” – Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, "Coup Co-Conspirators as Free-Speech Martyrs: Distorting the Venezuelan media story," FAIR Media Advisory, 25 May 2007, http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3107
“Most of Venezuela’s media remains private owned and operated…” - Stuart Munckton, "Corporate media outraged: Venezuela expands free speech," Green Left Weekly, 6 June 2007, http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/712/36966
“…end presidential term limits and some of the related constitutional reforms…” - Gregory Wilpert, "Referendum for Venezuelan Constitutional Reform to be in 2 Parts," Venezuelanalysis.com, 2 November 2007, http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/2798
“… approve or deny the proposed constitutional reforms in a national referendum.” - Venezuel Analysis, "Over Hundred Thousand Venezuelans March in Support of Constitutional Reform," Venezuelanalysis.com, 5 November 2007, http://64.191.57.43/news/2804
“ - Banco Central de Venezuela – “ - Banco Central de Venezuela, http://www.bcv.org.ve/
“To quote the Embassy of Venezuela fact sheet …” – Embassy of Venezuela, “"Constitutional Reform of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela," Embassy of Venezuela Website, undated, http://www.embavenez-us.org/news.php?nid=3791
“…Chávez did indeed make this statement…” - Rory Carroll, "Chávez to expel foreign dissenters," The Guardian, 23 July 2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,,2133102,00.html
“…USAID …” - Eva Golinger, "USAID in Bolivia and Venezuela: The Silent Subversion," Bolivia Rising, 12 September 2007, http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2600
“…National Endowment for Democracy…” - Michael Barker, "Washington Promotes 'Independent' Media in Venezuela," Upside Down World , 20 September 2007, http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2624
“…Conservative Party (UK)…” - Calvin Tucker, "Conservative Party’s Venezuelan Friends in Low Places," The Guardian, 2 September 2007, http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2579
“…American Security Council Foundation …” - Michael Fox, "'Crisis in the Americas' – A Page Out of Washington’s Propaganda Playbook on Venezuela," Venezuelanalysis.com, 29 October 2007, http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2771
“…assorted Latin American Rightists…” - John Pilger, "The Old Iran-Contra Death Squad Gang is Desperate to Discredit Chavez," The Guardian, 17 August 2007, http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2552
Like any modern government, there are certainly fair grounds to be critical of the Bolivarian regime in Venezuela, for example its relations with the counter-progressive regime of Iran and its growing militarism. Nevertheless, when subjected to a basic realpolitik “cost/benefit analysis,” I believe the Bolivarian regime remains one of the most progressive governments in the world and still deserves the support and solidarity it has received from progressive elements elsewhere. However, to substantiate my point, some of Mr. Condon’s primary contentions do deserve a bit of comment.
First, with respect to RCTV, this particular private media outlet actively aided and abetted in the 2002 coup attempt and the effort to illegally overthrow the government of Venezuela. No state can realistically be expected to actively license and authorize the operation of a media outlet that has moved beyond criticism to active – and utterly undeniable – sedition against the state, its people, and its legal representative government. Most of Venezuela’s media remains privately owned and operated and remains actively critical of the Chávez government and its initiatives – all of which is to be expected in any free state – however, RCTV in particular crossed the line between exercising freedom of speech and complicity in an armed insurrection against the state in the interests of a foreign power (the U.S., the only government to immediately recognize the coup). Rest assured that if Adbusters were to move beyond active criticism (freedom of speech) and into direct mobilization and support of an armed insurrection against the Canadian government and the abduction of the prime minister, it too would be shut down and few would fault the Canadian government for doing so.
Secondly, regarding the current proposal to end presidential term limits and some of the related constitutional reforms, I agree that this is certainly somewhat less than encouraging, but again, it is not being done without the active consent and endorsement of the Venezuelan people. Specifically, on December 2 of this year the Venezuelan people – not the legislature – will have the direct ability to approve or deny the proposed constitutional reforms in a national referendum. The idea that great leaders with great ideas might be allowed to continue in their positions longer than normal – with the consent of the people – is hardly unique to Venezuela; remember even in the U.S. we chose to elect FDR for four successive terms (1932, 1936, 1940, & 1944) without lapsing into an authoritarian dictatorship.
The question of the autonomy of Venezuela’s central bank - Banco Central de Venezuela – is another of the constitutional reforms suggested by the President Chávez as part of the Bolivarian Process and is of vital import if the Process is to advance. Essentially, Article 318 of the reforms brings the central bank under control of the elected government of the people so that its policies – specifically in relation to monetary policy - support the interests of the people over the interests of the international markets. That is, contrary to the neo-liberal “Washington Consensus” in which the well being of people is secondary to the well being of international markets and the plutocratic elites, this proposed reform will allow the government and central bank to more effectively coordinate economic policies in support of the Bolivarian Process for the benefit of the Venezuelan people. To quote the Embassy of Venezuela fact sheet: “As Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz has argued, the many tradeoffs involved in crafting monetary policy and promoting economic growth in developing countries ‘cannot be relegated to technocrats, particularly when those technocrats place the interests of one segment of society above others.’”
Finally, regarding the notion of expelling foreigners that criticize the government, this presentation by Mr. Condon is somewhat misleading. While Chávez did indeed make this statement, there has been no real change in policy and one must also keep such comments in the context of a myriad of foreign enterprises openly working in Venezuela to undermine the regime. Specifically, these foreign subversives include USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Conservative Party (UK), American Security Council Foundation, assorted Latin American Rightists, and so on. Chávez has very real and legitimate reasons to be wary of foreign critics entering his country and agitating against freedom and democracy in favor of free markets and plutocratic exploitation.
Anyway, make no mistake about it, a number of decisions by the Chávez government do in fact provide reason to worry, but to date there is nothing that should result in “dread and disappointment.”
John Sigler
Bolivarian Circle ‘Chief Tierra Blanca’
a/k/a “Americans for Chavez”
http://www.americans-for-chavez.com
Notes, which can be included or excluded as you will:
“…actively aided and abetted in the 2002 coup attempt…” – Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, "Coup Co-Conspirators as Free-Speech Martyrs: Distorting the Venezuelan media story," FAIR Media Advisory, 25 May 2007, http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3107
“Most of Venezuela’s media remains private owned and operated…” - Stuart Munckton, "Corporate media outraged: Venezuela expands free speech," Green Left Weekly, 6 June 2007, http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/712/36966
“…end presidential term limits and some of the related constitutional reforms…” - Gregory Wilpert, "Referendum for Venezuelan Constitutional Reform to be in 2 Parts," Venezuelanalysis.com, 2 November 2007, http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/2798
“… approve or deny the proposed constitutional reforms in a national referendum.” - Venezuel Analysis, "Over Hundred Thousand Venezuelans March in Support of Constitutional Reform," Venezuelanalysis.com, 5 November 2007, http://64.191.57.43/news/2804
“ - Banco Central de Venezuela – “ - Banco Central de Venezuela, http://www.bcv.org.ve/
“To quote the Embassy of Venezuela fact sheet …” – Embassy of Venezuela, “"Constitutional Reform of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela," Embassy of Venezuela Website, undated, http://www.embavenez-us.org/news.php?nid=3791
“…Chávez did indeed make this statement…” - Rory Carroll, "Chávez to expel foreign dissenters," The Guardian, 23 July 2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,,2133102,00.html
“…USAID …” - Eva Golinger, "USAID in Bolivia and Venezuela: The Silent Subversion," Bolivia Rising, 12 September 2007, http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2600
“…National Endowment for Democracy…” - Michael Barker, "Washington Promotes 'Independent' Media in Venezuela," Upside Down World , 20 September 2007, http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2624
“…Conservative Party (UK)…” - Calvin Tucker, "Conservative Party’s Venezuelan Friends in Low Places," The Guardian, 2 September 2007, http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2579
“…American Security Council Foundation …” - Michael Fox, "'Crisis in the Americas' – A Page Out of Washington’s Propaganda Playbook on Venezuela," Venezuelanalysis.com, 29 October 2007, http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2771
“…assorted Latin American Rightists…” - John Pilger, "The Old Iran-Contra Death Squad Gang is Desperate to Discredit Chavez," The Guardian, 17 August 2007, http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2552
