Getting away with murder (crimes of Bush II and of journalists in Iraq war)

Thanks to Daniel delSolar for pointing me to this very clear, dispassionate indictment by University of Texas journalism professor Robert Jensen on Presidential lying, journalistic malfeasance, and the manipulation of public opinion.

WMD big error

If you haven't done this yet, rush to Google and type in "Weapons of mass destruction" and then hit "I'm feeling lucky". Then read the error message very carefully. If you like to wear your political whimsy, a link from the error message allows you to purchase a WMD 404 T-shirt.

El Salvador elections: Fear defeats hope

Four years ago(March 12, 2000), El Salvador's Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional - FMLN boasted that it had become "the primary political force in the country, having won 31 diputados [congressional seats] in the Legislative Assembly and 80 municipal governments. This represents 50% of the national population and approximatedly 75% of the country's economic activity." Yesterday, the FMLN really thought it was going to win the presidency.

Pretty impressive hope for a revolutionary political party that had struggled against such enormous odds -- including not only the usual police repression of its leaders, but even massacres of those merely suspected of supporting its aims, since the birth of the tiny and clandestine Communist Party (PCS) in 1930 and up through the intense and terribly violent armed struggle of 1980-1994, which included the Communists and many other sectors united against the military dictatorship. In the election yesterday, the FMLN went back to its origins, putting up the old Communist Party chief and guerrilla commander, 74-year old Schafik Handal, as its candidate for president.

Schafik ran on a a message of revolutionary hope, only occasionally tinged by the enormous anger that he and his comrades must feel for the bloody harassment down through the decades. The campaign backing the right-wing ARENA candidate, 39-year old Antonio Elías Saca, was all about fear -- fear of what could happen to the poor country if Schafik were elected. Among hard-core ARENA supporters (not many), there is of course fear of anything labeled "Communist" -- though white-bearded Schafik was doing his best to appear as a wise and friendly uncle rather than an armed monster. However, ARENA knew that mobilizing its hard core was not going to be enough to win this election, and they went back to their dirty tricks, though (very fortunately) with less violence than in the days when they were murdering an archbishop, nuns and priests, students and peasants and any other opponents. The main campaign resource was fear that Schafik would so alienate the United States that investments would cease and the many Salvadorans who had emigrated there would be unwelcome, so that the remittances (the money they send back to their families in El Salvador) would be cut off. And the United States Government did little to allay that fear -- and, given the nature of current US policy toward Latin America, and fanatics like Otto Reich who are running it, the fear may have been justified.

Schafik now has lost the presidential election, by a big, big margin. To the FMLN's apparent astonishment (their website was predicting a win in the first round, i.e., without need for a runoff), Saca took nearly 60% of the vote. The FMLN remains a powerful force, in the Assembly and in local governments, but it looks as though even healing the bitter antagonisms of the 1970s and 1980s (and from even long before) will not be enough to let them take power nationally as long as the US Government and corporations retain a stranglehold on the national economy.

Check out the colorful website FMLN .
Here is a related comment, in English, on the tragic poetic life of revolutionary Salvadoran poet Roque Dalton, which illustrates something of the intensity of the struggles in that small country.

¡Pásalo! A political lesson from Spain

On the eve of the Spanish elections last Sunday, March 14, the huge and sudden demonstrations of outrage against Aznar´s Partido Popular, suddenly become very unpopular, appeared as though by magic -- the magic being the ubiquitous cell phones at which young Spaniards have become very adept. Aznar's people accused the Partido Socialista (PSOE) of organizing the demos, but they really were much more spontaneous and beyond the control of the socialist party or any institution -- people called each other, all their friends, leaving a text message of where they were gathering to protest, and ending it with the phrase "Pásalo" -- "Pass it on." And pass it on they did.

"Phones were smoking," says an unsigned report in El Periódico de Aragón. The phone companies reported traffic almost 20% higher than on ordinary Saturdays. And not just in Madrid: responding to the calls, the huge angry crowds gathered in front of PP headquarters also in Barcelona, Sevilla, Pamplona and Albacete. And it looks as though the next day, they all went out to vote! A huge turnout, and a huge change in Spanish politics.

In the U.S., we have already seen the power of electronic communications to summon huge crowds, when MoveOn and other organizations spread e-mail messages. Friends, it is going to be harder and harder for those who try to rule us to do so by monopolizing information. If you read Spanish, check out this article with more detail on how they did it -- maybe without even planning to! Los SMS en la rebelión democrática contra el PP

Corrections

In my article Tuesday are two errors I failed to catch before I sent it in to the Philadelphia Inquirer on Monday. The Spanish vote occurred Sunday, March 14 (not 15, which is the day I was writing the piece), and Galicia is, of course, in the northwestern corner of Spain. See 'Historic reversal' - and a warning

Bombs & ballots in Spain

My interpretation of events in Spain is much more hopeful and radically different from some other pundits today. It's in my op-ed in this morning's Philadelphia Inquirer: 'Historic reversal' - and a warning.

Already I've received my first angry e-mail from a reader, who thinks that 11 million Spaniards and I are wimps and that the Inquirer is America's Pravda (that's because he hasn't read the new Pravda lately, which is not what he thinks -- but that's another story). For an opinion that is the polar opposite of mine (and that misinterprets completely the political dynamics of Spain), see Rewarding Terror in Spain by Edward N. Luttwak in today's NYT.

Life, struggle, theater

A friend jealous of our New York address and all those theater opportunities he imagines we're enjoying asks if we've seen the Lincoln Center production of Lear. No, not yet. But just to make all you out of towners really jealous, I report that we did however see the opera Il ritorno d'Ullisse, music by Claudio Monteverdi, direction by the South African artist William Kentridge, performances by the Handspring Puppet Company (also of South Africa), which played all the roles, terrific singers dubbing for the puppets in the roles of Ullisse, Penelope, Telemaco et al., and the Ricercar Consort playing instruments that may have been used in the original production (1640).

I would have gone to a lot of trouble just to see or hear any one of these elements: the puppet company, the consort, those voices, and especially Kentridge's drawings and stage direction. He's very prolific, but I hadn't known him as a director before. What I had seen were his animations of his rough and hasty-looking charcoal drawings -- often sinister and political -- where one scene dissolves into another, the trees in the forest turn into watch towers of a concentration camp, buildings suddenly grow and just as suddenly blow apart. Seeing all these elements work together so tightly and synergistically made me appreciate Kentridge's directorial power.

Kentridge makes the story ambiguous. One Ulysses puppet lies dying on a hospital litter (these puppets are about half life-size, and animated by a plainly visible puppeter who makes this one breathe heavily and occasionally make an effort to sit up; the effect is Brechtian -- the openness of the manipulation makes the audience more trusting of the truth that is being said). Then another, identical Ulysses puppet lands on Ithaca after his 20-year absence, and begins his final great adventure (at least, the last one that Homer sang about). You know the story: he disguises himself as an old man, finds Penelope in the palace surrounded by suitors whom she's been holding off (for 20 years!), turns out to be the only one present strong enough to string Ulysses' might bow, and then shoots the suitors. Meanwhile, Monteverdi's music and the voices -- especially Furio Zanaxi (Ulisse), Kristina Hammarström (Penelope), Mark Adler (Giove, no less -- that is, Jove, the big guy) and Elise Gäbele (Minerva, Ulysses' favorite deity). And the sound of the Consort. And Kentridge's photomontages and drawings (a big white owl always appears for Minerva, but other references are less obvious) tell us that the story is about more than the story, it's about life itself and struggle.

Here's a good site for bio and examples of the work of William Kentridge.

Confronting the threat of Haitian democracy

Was Jean-Bertrand Aristide kidnapped by U.S. diplomats, as he charges, or did he agree to leave after the U.S. told him that if he didn't he would get killed, which is (in essence) what Colin Powell is saying? And what's the difference? In the greater scheme, it doesn't matter whether he scampered into the plane on his own or was dragged there kicking and screaming -- either way, it was the U.S.'s power that forced him out and is now tolerating -- maybe even encouraging -- the chaos in Port-au-Prince and the rest of the country today.

But "chaos" is the wrong word. What appears chaotic is really targeted violence, the destruction of the people and institutions that might support democracy. Why did the U.S. Government undermine Aristide's government (by vetoing international loans, egging on the opposition, and probably providing the arms of the rebels), and why are U.S. troops standing by while the murders, burning and destruction continue? Aristide, whatever his faults, was constitutionally elected and represented democracy. Is the U.S. governing cabal threatened by democracy in Haiti?

Yes, it must be, and it should be. Democracy -- even an uneven and imperfect democracy -- in a country that poor and that close is a threat to the unbridled rule of U.S. corporations and financial institutions. A democratic Haiti, responding to the needs and desires of its desperately poor majority, will defy U.S. Government directives that seem to go against the national interest. Democratic Haiti would certainly accept medical personnel and other aid from Cuba, as Aristide has in fact done. As it gains strength to do so, it might also attempt to enforce labor laws in the foreign industries set up to exploit its cheap labor. It will doubtless serve as an inspiration to other populist movements in the hemisphere that so frighten Washington. (Just look at what they're saying about Evo Morales in Bolivia, Hugo Chávez in Venezuela, and the piqueteros in Argentina, for example.)

For now the danger of democracy is past. Perhaps, no, surely, Aristide is right when he says "the tree of democracy will grow again." But now, by the force of the U.S. government, is the time of clear-cutting of all the seedlings.

For news and analysis on Haiti, see Democracy Now! The War and Peace Report

Making sense of Haiti

Z Magazine article by David Cromwell and David Edwards gives background and context, though it doesn't help much in understanding this specific crisis: Bringing Hell To Haiti - Part 1
Earthlink Breaking News is the opposite: specifics (as nearly as can be understood by foreign reporters on the scene) without context.
Haiti Background: Louis Jodel Chamblain tells us about one of the more colorful mass-murderers involved in the coup, a man who learned his killing skills from the U.S. military (though he obviously has a knack).

Haïti: Background of the crisis

If you read French, you will no doubt profit from this very condensed but clear description of how Haiti got to where it is today: Haïti deux siècles de tumultes, by Jean-Michel Caroit, Le Monde, here picked up from a terrific news site based in the Dominican Republic, Perspectiva Ciudadana.